29 Apr 2014

Media urged to keep Te Reo simple

8:01 am on 29 April 2014

The Maori Language Commission is urging news broadcasters to keep their use of Te Reo simple so their audience can understand them.

The agency, Te Taura Whiri i te reo Maori, is planning to run a wananga or workshop for those who work in the media and who translate the language.

Te Haumihiata Mason is the commission's Kaitiaki Reo and senior manager of Te Matapuna, which looks after licences. She says news broadcasters such as Te Karere and Te Kaea need to keep the language simple, because many Maori watch both shows.

Ms Mason says some native speakers find it difficult to understand what's being said.

She believes the people putting together news items and subtitles have come through a different school of learning than an elder, who has learnt the language in the home.

Ms Mason says news should be easy for both an eight and an 80-year-old Te Reo speaker to understand.

The four-day course for media will be held in about five months' time (in late September or early October), as part of the total immersion noho, Kura Reo.